Maiden World Cup win for Emma Jeffcoat as Matt Hauser turns in sterling Games trial

 

  

Triathon Australia: March 10, 2018: Sydney nursing student Emma Jeffcoat and Hervey Bay’s favourite son, Commonwealth Games bound Matt Hauser did Australia proud in today’s ITU Mooloolaba World Cup on the Sunshine Coast.
 
Defending champion Willian and World Junior Champion Hauser will have an all-star cast waiting for them with South African Richard Murray, fourth in the 2016 Rio Olympics and fellow Australian Olympians Ryan Bailie and Aaron Royle along with Kiwi Olympian Ryan Sissons and Spain’s Victor Hernandez amongst the Elite Men.
 
Add in Hauser’s 21-year-old inform training partner Kingscliff’s Brandon Copeland, the Oceania Championship winner from Devonport and Canadian Games duo Matt Sharpe and Tyler Mislawchuk and the men’s field will be bulging with established stars and rising ones, with Games events set down for April 5 (Men's and Women's Elite) and April 7 (Mixed Relay and Men's and Women's Paratriathlon).
 
Willian dominated from the outset to win the Gold Coast Triathlon Luke Harrop Memorial Australian Championship event on the Gold Coast a fortnight ago from Hauser, a race converted to a Duathlon when the swim was cancelled due to poor water quality.
 
McShane was second in the Oceania Cup to Andrea Hewitt (NZ) in Glenelg and followed up with a third in the Oceania Championships in Devonport to Emma Jeffcoat.
 
She will face off against inform training partner Natalie Van Coevorden (bronze medal winner in the opening World Triathlon Series race in Abu Dhabi last week) and Jeffcoat who added that converted Duathlon on the Gold Coast to her brilliant early season form.

 
The USA’s Kirsten Kasper, a close up fourth in Abu Dhabi and Canadian Games trio Joanne Brown, Dominika Jamnicky and Amy Legault are sure to be amongst the front runners. 
 
Hauser said the men’s race would be on from the start.
 
“We’ve got a great bunch of young Aussies heading into the World Cup and it will be a good shake out for the Commonwealth Games with such world class competition including Richard Murray who is obviously in good form at the moment,” said Hauser, who will try and replicate Mooloolaba as much as he can for the Games. 
 
“I’ll try and emulate the conditions to suit Mooloolaba as a Games run through; I have taken a lot of confidence from my win at last year’s World’s already as I build for 2018.
 
“(Like Rotterdam) it’s all about putting the race together as predicted and as best as possible for the Games and it’s going to be very front end heavy especially with the swim bike.
 
“It’s about taking positives from that race (Rotterdam) and moving on to prepare to race against the world’s best, it’s about moving onwards and upwards.
 
 “There are a lot of strong guys in there and it’s going to be on from the start and if it’s not on then I’m going to make sure I do the right thing in preparing for the Commonwealth Games races as best as possible.
 
“It will be good to go up against Murray and see where I’m at and really test the legs out and hopefully take a lot of confidence from my training at the moment and I think I’ll be able to give it a good crack.”
 
Bailie and Royle, our best performed Rio duo, are preparing for the WTS season with Bermuda and Yokohama on the immediate horizon and will be doing their best to hang on in full training as they build towards a season that will climax at the WTS Grand Final on the Gold Coast in September.
 
Van Coevorden has arrived onto the Sunshine Coast with that extra spring in her step after putting together a smart game plan to stay up right on the bike in tricky conditions in Abu Dhabi and she finished off her race brilliantly putting together the work she has been doing with coach Jamie Turner on the “Blue Carpet Project." 
 
“The Blue Carpet Project is something we have all been working towards for a couple of years and it is all about making sure you have something in the tank when you get to the blue carpet,” said Van Coevorden.
 
“And that’s exactly how it panned out – when I dug deep to get to the line it just automatically kicked in physically and mentally without me thinking about it.
 
“We work on it at the end of every training session and I haven’t had the chance to use it and I know I can do it now.”
 
Jeffcoat will take the confidence from Devonport and the Gold Coast to Mooloolaba and New Plymouth and the WTS season.
 
“I’ve had a great start to the season and I certainly can’t complain,” said Jeffcoat.
 
“And it’s nice to get some rewards for all the hard work you put in; I would love to see the surf swim at Mooloolaba, given my background but if not, I will be ready for whatever happens.
 
“I’ll be out to race hard from the start – that old school Aussie tactic of keeping them all honest – there’s no better way to race and I hope it all plays out well again and I’ll be ready to go come Saturday.”
 
The women’s race will start at 1pm on Saturday with the men’s race at 3pm.
 Jeffcoat, the 24-year-old former champion lifesaver from Dee Why, started the day in style with a break through World Cup victory after dominating from the opening 750m surf swim - a far cry from her World Cup debut in Mooloolaba two years ago when she finished 23rd and an agonising fourth last year. 
 
And the Gold Coast-based Hauser, the 2017 ITU World Junior Champion, charged home for silver behind South Africa’s world ranked No 4 Richard Murray – one of the favourites for Commonwealth Games gold next month in a confidence boosting performance.
 
But it was Jeffcoat who showed all the experience of a former champion surf swimmer from the Sydney Northern Beaches when she conquered the tricky 1.5m dumping surf swim to open up a 15 second lead heading into the 20km bike.
 
It didn’t take long for the field to close the gap with Jeffcoat happy to let the chase group of seven riders – including Australian pair, last week’s WTS bronze medallist from Abu Dhabi Natalie Van Coevorden and Commonwealth Games team member Charlotte McShane – who put themselves in the race until the end.
 
The pack also included Games athletes Nicole Van Der Kaay from New Zealand and Canadian Dominika Jamnicky.
 
Van Coevorden, Jeffcoat and Italian Angelica Olmo with US pair Kirsten Kasper and Tamara Gorman took turns in holding the pace on the bike with Jeffcoat happy to sit and let her legs do the talking over the last five kilometres on the run.
 
The swim was outstanding, the bike was smart but it was the run where Jeffcoat has made major inroads under astute coach Mick Delamotte.
 
“I definitely wanted to race hard and attack from the front and use the surf to my advantage and I love a tough bike course and I’ve been really happy with how my run’s progressing (so) I really wanted to show that today,” said Jeffcoat.
 
“There was definitely a strong current moving from right to left across the bank and there were waves breaking right on that bank so girls not used to racing in the surf would have been really challenging.
 
“I’m lucky I grew up racing in surf lifesaving so I could play that to my advantage but I (actually) missed a wave coming up but that’s surf so I’ve grown up with that.
 
“I was looking at the surf report and as you know like any keen surf athlete looking for the week leading up and I saw it was going to be pretty big so I was hoping that nothing changed out there.
 
“The wind was really strong out there on that bike course so on the first lap I went by myself and I could see on the far turn around I that the girls were gaining and I kind of sat up and waited to (join) the bunch and we rolled through the turns and I knew it was going to be a foot race. 
 
“I’ve been working hard in the off season on my run and just being all round more efficient, and smarter racing.
 
“I am relatively new to the sport; I started my first ever World Cup here two years ago and I was 23rd so to come out here today and win I’m stoked.
 
“I’ve been doing plenty of strength work on the run and just trying to become the most efficient runner I can and least taxing and I felt really good out there today and I was really stoked to be able to put that into practice.
 
“All my attentions now are focused towards Tokyo 2020.”
 
Jeffcoat raced away to take her maiden World Cup victory from USA star Kirsten Kapser – fourth in last week’s WTS with Olmo third, Van Der Kaay fourth and Wollongong training partners Van Coevorden following up her WTS bronze from last week with a close up fifth with McShane on her hammer for a solid sixth.
 
Then it was the men’s race with France’s Max Stapley, who trains under Australian High Performance coach Jamie Turner in Wollongong, cracking a 1.5m wave to lead out of the swim.
 
But it didn’t take long until a leading group of 30 grew together on the bike with Kiwi Hayden Wilde breaking away to lead on the final lap into T2.
 
Then the fearless Murray took control of the run with Hauser, Sam Ward (New Zealand) and McElroy hung strong to push the South African all the way to the line.
 
In the end Murray controlled the back end of the run to hold off the fast finishing Hauser who produced an encouraging Games trial with McElroy taking the bronze.
 
“I think everything went to plan right from the get go – it was a tough swim obviously with the conditions out there and handled myself well and stayed pretty safe and tight in the bike pack and managed to leave something (in the pack) for the end and I almost got Richard in the end in the downhill but he kicked away in the end but I’m really happy to come out second today,” said Hauser.
 
“It’s only my second World Cup, obviously getting the win in Chengdu last year and backing it up with the podium here today is very encouraging and it’s only onwards and upwards from here in 2018.
 
“It has been hours on end with my coach Dan Atkins and our great squad on the Gold Coast and I can only thank my team mates and I’m looking forward to getting back there and putting some more hard yards over the next two weeks leading into the Games. 
 
“I knew I had to stay focused and stay comfortable and run my own race and I saw Richard run up the road and I know I like to build into my run and to be able to kick on that last lap and get away from Sam (Ward) and Matt (McElroy.)
 
“My run leg has come from strength to strength to have my first full triathlon out of the way and the result is just the cherry on the cake.
 
“I was blessed to have my whole family here with mum and dad my Nan from the Sunshine Coast and Pop from Barwon Heads; to see them when I’m up there on the podium is very heart warming.”
 
Hauser’s Games team mate Luke Willian put together a strong race with a barnstorming finish for eighth with Rio Olympian Ryan Bailie 15th, Oceania champion Brandon Copeland 19th with Olympian Aaron Royle 24th and Jonathan Sammut 31st.

2018 Mooloolaba ITU World Cup Results
Women
Men
Photo credit: Delly Carr | Triathlon Australia